Six months before 3-year-old Yeliani Schwartz-Ojeda was killed, the state Department of Children and Families determined that, despite suspicions of abuse, the young girl was safe with her mother.

Yeliani had been living in Central Florida with her younger brother and her mom, 22-year-old Maryann Schwartz, for less than a year when the family popped up on DCF's radar. Schwartz's support system in Orlando was already collapsing; she and her children were homeless, according to documents recently released by DCF.

The DCF investigation started on Jan. 17.

An unnamed tipster reported watching Schwartz slam her 1-year-old son into a crib on several occasions at a homeless shelter where the family was staying. According to the witness, Schwartz did it with so much force, the baby started to cry.

Schwartz was seen punching her daughter in the chest and arms, hitting her son in the arms and legs and yelling at the children, according to the DCF documents. Her daughter was sometimes seen asking other people for food.

But when a DCF investigator went to the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida shelter where Schwartz was living in a dorm with 10 to 20 other women and children, documents of the visit painted a picture of healthy, happy children who were not being harmed.

Yeliani and her younger brother were playing together as Schwartz watched. Yeliani happily took the DCF investigator's cellphone and pretended to make phone calls; when the little girl wouldn't give the phone back, Schwartz calmly convinced the girl to trade her own cellphone for the investigator's.

"The children appeared to both be happy [children] and did not show signs of fear or caution in [Schwartz's] presence," the report said. The investigator "observed Yeliani to be clean and appropriately dressed... She appeared to be a happy [child]."

Yeliani only had a small scratch on her forehead caused by a fall and a bruise on her arm caused by a bite from her brother, who had no visible injuries, the report said. The case was closed March 10 with investigators believing Yeliani and her brother were safe.

"In this particular situation, one of the children didn't have any marks or bruises," said Kristin Gray, spokeswoman for DCF. "These are injuries that are not uncommon. There were no other signs of abuse or neglect."

Schwartz, who was removed from her own parents as a toddler in Chicago and raised in foster care, told investigators "although she does not remember her parents she believes her childhood affected her as a parent; it motivated her to be a good mother to her two children so they would not have to experience not having a mother as she did."

Between March 10 and June 27, something changed.

That night, Schwartz reported her daughter was the victim of a hit-and-run crash at the Grandview Pointe Apartments in Orange County — a story deputies later determined was a lie.

The girl was so seriously injured that her pulse stopped and was restarted three times before she was finally pronounced dead. This time, she and her brother also both had visible injuries in different stages of healing.

Schwartz now faces child-abuse charges related to her son's injuries and first-degree murder charges in her daughter's death. Yeliani is not the first child in Orange and Seminole counties this year to be killed after a child-protection agency's investigation was closed without finding cause to remove the child.

In June, Justin Polk was found dead at the Countryside Inn and Suites off Lee Road near Interstate 4. According to the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office, the 2-year-old boy died of blunt-force trauma. DCF investigated his family three times before his death.

His mother and her boyfriend were arrested on child-abuse charges but, despite the ruling by the Medical Examiner's Office that the boy's death was a homicide, neither faces murder charges, court records show.

About four months before that, 2-year-old Tariji Gordon was found in a suitcase buried in a shallow grave in Putnam County. Like Schwartz, Tariji's mother, Rachel Fryer, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office child-protection team, DCF and its private-sector contractor Community Based Care of Central Florida, which oversaw the day-to-day well-being of Tariji and her siblings, were involved in Tariji's life since she was 2 months old.

At the time, her twin brother died after he was accidentally suffocated as he and Fryer slept on a couch. Tariji and her other siblings were removed from Fryer and after wavering on its opinion for several months, DCF advocated to reunite the family in 2013, records show.

These cases highlight what Gray calls one of the most difficult parts of a child-welfare investigator's job: anticipating when abuse will escalate and end with the death of a child.

"It's extremely difficult to predict human behavior," Gray said.

Bethanie Barber, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society and the Guardian ad Litem coordinator, said making responsible decisions with the information available is an important part of a child advocate's job.

Guardian ad Litem attorneys are appointed by the court and represent the best interest of the child during court proceedings in abuse cases. They not only tell the court what the child wants but also recommend what is best based on reviewing DCF's documentation and firsthand interviews with victimized children and their families.

In Yeliani's case, Gray says DCF stands by their decision to leave the girl with her mother.

Gray said before a child is removed by DCF, investigators look at a totality of circumstances including injuries that are not consistent with explanations provided for them, prior history with DCF that shows a pattern of dangerous behavior and concern from people who are familiar with the family.

Although it ended tragically, six months before her death, investigators had no reason to believe Yeliani was in danger of serious injury or death. Orange County deputies have said Schwartz lied about how her child was injured; records detailing what they believe really led to the girl's death have been withheld.

"We have to use our very best judgment," said Barber, "and be dogged in our pursuit of the truth."